as someone who relished in epic birthday parties growing up, including an oscar mayer wiener party, a carnival party, and a green party (thanks, parents!), i'd just like to say that i am 100% grateful to now be knee-deep in the bridal and baby shower phase of my life. i love planning them, i love attending them, i love filling the registry for my own bridal shower with cake stands and more cake stands... i think i was made for showers because, see, there was a time period in my early adult years when celebrations meant going up to the dinosaur barbecue on 125th street, getting real real drunk, eating a ton of peanut butter pie, going to three different parties, and then ending back up at 125th street for mcdonald's before going to sleep with all of my makeup on. and ok, that was fun, but there were no decorations or fun invites involved, no themes to be aware of, no homemade cake. now that i'm a true grandma on the inside (as proven by my new 9:30 bedtime, kidding, but kind of not really) i am fully ready to party by way of playing cute bingo and visiting with all the ladies at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

i even made egg salad about it.

i made egg salad and biscuits and all of these little loaf cakes in girlie pastel colors in honor of two showers this week. one was a few days ago, an eggcousin's classy bridal shower, and it came complete with wedding-themed catch phrase and chocolate covered potato chips. the other is jessica's baby shower today, thus the whole trashed up thing! in trying-to-be jessica fashion, i trashed some of these babies up with gummy bears, chocolate chips, and more sprinkles.

seriously, just shower me with sprinkles now.

obviously you don't need a cute loaf pan to make these, you can make them as cupcakes. but if you do find yourself in the loaf pan aisle, i highly recommend one. they're the cutest.

mini vanilla loaf cakes with buttercream frosting

makes 16-18

ingredients

for the cakes:

2 1/2 c cake flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 c sugar

2 large eggs

2 tb vanilla

6 tb vegetable oil

1 c whole milk

for the frosting:

2 c (or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 c powdered sugar, or to taste

2 tsp vanilla

1 pinch kosher salt

for decorating:

coloring for frosting (i used natural food dyes, matcha powder, and pomegranate juice)

sprinkles

sanding sugar

gummy bears

chocolate chips

any thing else.........

clues

preheat oven to 350. grease your mini loaf pan and set it aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. add vanilla and oil.

beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and then beat in the milk. scoop into your pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes.

let cool.

to make the frosting, beat together the butter and sugar. add vanilla and salt. taste and add more sugar if desired.

frost your cakes, decorate the crap out of them, and enjoy!

happy baby shower, jessica!!!!! (and biggg thank you to ashley and bev for organizing this shower! check out their blogs for lists of all of the other trashed up goodies :)

-yeh!